Our Work with Children

Everything we do has just one goal: the sustained well-being of children, especially the most vulnerable.

We work with families, communities, and partners to ensure that children enjoy good health, are educated for life, experience the love of God and their neighbours, and are cared for, protected, and participating.

Our Approaches

Everything we do has just one goal: the sustained well-being of children, especially the most vulnerable.

We work with families, communities, and partners to ensure that children enjoy good health, are educated for life, experience the love of God and their neighbours, and are cared for, protected, and participating.

Make a Difference

In disaster situations, children are always the most vulnerable to the effects of malnutrition and disease

World Vision works around the clock to bring hope and relief to children and families whose lives are threatened in the wake of disasters. Thanks to the support of our committed donors, we've helped over 10 million people worldwide- providing food, shelter, water and healthcare.

Education

(Haree versaun Tetun iha okos)

A strong start in life

World Vision runs three education projects in Timor-Leste, all with a focus on Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD). Our programmes target children 0-5 years old because early childhood is the best time to give children an opportunity to develop their full potential.

Children who don’t do well when they start school are more likely to go through life with poor skills and low income, and face problems raising their own children. A review of our work in 2014 showed that 200 children ready to graduate from ECCD centres to primary school were better prepared physically, mentally and academically.

In 2015 WVTL is running 44 ECCD centres in the districts of Aileu, Baucau and Bobonaro where we have over 1800 children enrolled.

Key elementsThe key elements of our education programmes are:

To work alongside communities so that they can manage their own centres, based in people’s homes or in village meeting places. Last year, we trained an additional 71 volunteers to help teach in these centres.

We encourage them to use local materials and resources, whether making toys or teaching children what local foods are available

We take a holistic approach to education which means we address not just a child’s need to learn to read and write, but also the need to have nutritious food, early stimulation, a healthy lifestyle and good personal hygiene.

Our broad-based approach reaches parents too. We estimate that over 5400 people benefitted from our ECCD projects last year.

We work closely with government and other NGOs to help promote early childhood education in Timor-Leste. When our Aileu ECCD projects runs out later this year, the government will take over the 16 centres that we run there.

In 2014, we joined with two other major NGOs, Plan International and ChildFund, to host a two-day forum in Dili on Early Childhood Education. The forum theme was ‘The First Six Years: The Most Important Time of Development in a Child’s Life’. Its aim was to promote early childhood education so that all Timor’s children can enjoy a strong start in life.